


The Note

by CeceTA



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien finally breaks his oblivious streak, Characters aged up to about 16, Confession, F/M, Flirting, Identity Reveal, Post-it note, Supportive Alya and Nino, adrienette - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 07:52:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18586960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeceTA/pseuds/CeceTA
Summary: Adrien finally realises his feelings and formulates a plan to get Marinette to fall for him.





	The Note

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JadeJem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeJem/gifts).



> Happy birthday, Jade!
> 
> I hope you have a great day and enjoy this gift I wrote for you. 
> 
> In this story, they’re aged up a few years which is why they’re more comfortable around each other.

“Ha! I win again!” Marinette shouted triumphantly, playfully sticking her tongue out at the boy to her right as she did her usual victory dance. 

Adrien chuckled at her and leant back in his seat, a soft smile overtaking his features as he watched her celebrate yet another victory over him.

It was her third win in a row (to be fair, they were playing Ultimate Mecha Strike which she had a weird knack for) and Adrien thought he may as well just give up on trying to win at this point. But that would take all of the fun away so he still persisted and carried on trying to defeat her, receiving sly smirks and victory dances in return every time he lost.

Marinette really was a force to be reckoned with, and Adrien found that spending time with her was one of his favourite parts of the day. After being ditched by Alya and Nino enough times, their friendship was bound to evolve. At this point, they spoke to each other every single day, even if that meant they communicated via text.

An idea popped into his head and Adrien decided to go with it. He already knew what her reactions to his overdramatic ways were like, and he found the amused smile it brought to her face endearing.

“Oh no,” he started to shout, hardly holding back the grin his lips were curling into, “I’m never going to win! Please, Marinette, teach me your ways.” For added effect, he gave her his best kitten eyes.

Marinette let out a scoff at his small outburst, rolling her eyes. The amused smile Adrien loved crept onto her face, causing Adrien’s heart to beat dangerously fast all of a sudden.

“Only some of us are destined to be this great, Adrien,” she played along, barely containing her giggles. “It’ll cost you.”

“What’s the price?”

Marinette pursed her lips as she thought about it, one thing coming to mind that she knew she couldn’t possibly ask for. It’s not like he’d shown interest in her anyway, so it’d a stupid suggestion for her to make.

“Hmm. How about... no awful jokes for a week?”

Adrien looked utterly appalled as he dramatically placed a hand to his heart. “I feel attacked. How could you betray me like this?”

Marinette poked him on the forehead, causing a goofy smile to adorn his face. “Dork,” she muttered, trying to hide the light dusting of a blush tinging his face. 

“Your dork,” he whispered, his voice full of tenderness, as he grabbed her hand, causing her mouth to hang open in shock. It seemed that Adrien hadn’t instantly registered what he said until a few moment later when he suddenly let go of her hand and pushed his chair away from her.

“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” he apologised, sincerity laced in the tone of his voice. In that moment, it felt so much like he was joking with his lady so he couldn’t stop the words from flowing out of his mouth. There was a sense of familiarity whenever he was around Marinette that he couldn’t shake, but he shouldn’t be dwelling on that right now.

“It’s okay.” Marinette quietly responded, still looking a little shocked by his sudden flirting. Neither of them had been expecting it, after all.

———————

“Look, kid, I’m not saying that you’re an idiot but you’re being stupid about this right now.”

Plagg sighed at the lack of response from his holder who was currently sprawled out on his sofa, stomach down. One of his arms dangled off the edge, holding his phone that was open to a selfie he and Marinette had taken a few weeks ago when she’d come along to his photoshoot. 

It was a silly photo; one where both teens were pulling the silliest faces they could muster in an attempt to make each other laugh. It had been Marinette’s idea to take the photo so that he could have a break from the boring expressions he usually had to make for the ads he starred in.

“Adrien. Adrien, look at me.” Plagg demanded, floating in front of the blond boy’s face. “Do you like her? Yes or no?”

Adrien buried his face into a cushion as a myriad of thoughts swirled around his head. Memories of his recent conversations with the blue-eyed girl sprung to mind, each one helping him to realise his situation.

“I guess so,” he replied as he moved his head to face his kwami, his eyebrows furrowed into a frown. “I’m in love with Ladybug, though.”

Plagg sighed, feeling a little exasperated by Adrien’s usual response. “You can be in love with more than one person, Adrien. Besides, has Ladybug ever shown signs of interest in you?”

Adrien shook his head, recalling the times his spotted partner had informed him that her heart belonged to another boy. Whoever he was, he sure was lucky to have the attention of a girl like her.

“Exactly. Now I’ll ask you this once more: do you like Marinette?”

Adrien nodded his head at that. In all honesty, there had been times where he’d felt himself falling for her (although he’d brushed those thoughts away as soon as he could as it made him feel like he’d be betraying his lady) and he knew that, if given some more time, he could find himself becoming completely enamored by a girl like Marinette.

A smile crept onto his face as he thought about the idea of being with her. Marinette was a girl that never seemed to stop caring, no matter who you may be. She’d shown kindness to Adrien in many ways, something he ought to start doing more often in return as a means to say thank you.

All of a sudden, Adrien sat up, panic overtaking his features. “How am I supposed to get her to fall for me?!”

Plagg just shook his head and flew away before phasing through the cupboard door to his cheese stash. Until Adrien figured out that the girl was already completely head-over-heels for him, he was gonna need more cheese.

———————

“What are you doing?” Nino questioned as he walked into class, watching as Adrien repeatedly get lost in thought for a few moments before scribbling something down onto a piece of paper.

Adrien glanced around to make sure that no prying eyes or ears were nearby before sliding closer to Nino and whispering into his ear. “I’m trying to think of ways to get Marinette to fall for me.”

Instead of the shock Adrien was expecting, Nino burst into a fit of laughter. “Finally!” he shouted, catching the attention of the few others in the room with them.

Nino took the list (which Adrien had titled ‘ways to court Marinette’) from the desk and began to read through it as Adrien shuffled back to his side of their shared desk. Adrien nervously looked on as Nino looked through his ideas, letting out the occasional chuckle or rolling his eyes.

“Dude, I doubt that some of this will even work. But as your best friend, I’m willing to assist you in any way that I can. One question, though: can I tell Alya?”

———————

In hindsight, Adrien should have known not to let Nino tell Alya. As soon as he ended a brief call from Marinette herself asking his opinion on something for one of her latest designs, he found a string of text messages from the glasses-wearing girl, the last one being the words ‘call me ASAP’ in all capitals followed by a string of exclamation marks.

Adrien winced as he pressed the call button, preparing himself for an onslaught of questions from the young reporter. After a few short seconds, the rings stopped as she picked up the phone.

“What’s this I hear about you falling for my best friend?” Alya questioned, a sly tone in her voice. Adrien supposed being teased about it was better than having an excited Alya screaming down the phone at him.

“I’m guessing that Nino already told you about the list then,” he sighed, flopping down onto his bed.

“Oh, he sure did. He even told me some of the things you wrote on it. I never knew you were such a romantic, Adrien,” she teased, giggling to herself. “I’d recommend starting with the smaller things first before moving onto the shameless flirting.”

“How about the post-it note thing first?” Adrien questioned. That hadn’t been his best idea, but he figured that it would be a good starting point. 

“Sounds good to me! If she happens to wake up on time for once, I’ll keep her away from her locker. Also, a quick word of warning, M gets embarrassed pretty easily so I wouldn’t recommend making any grand gestures.”

“Got it,” he replied, making a mental note of that. There goes the piano idea then. “Thanks, Alya.”

“No problem! Feel free to come to me or Nino if need any help with this.” Adrien heard a shout in the background from her side of the call, followed by the scuffling of feet. “Sorry, Adrien, I’ve gotta get going now. My mum needs me to help with dinner.”

“Okay. Goodbye, Alya!”

“Bye!”

As soon as the call ended, Adrien dropped the phone on his bed and headed over to his desk to find the unopened pack of post-it notes he’d no use for until now. He sat down in his desk chair and picked up a pen, tapping it on his chin as he though about what he could possibly write to her.

“What’s the point in all this. Why can’t you just tell her how you feel and leave it at that? It’ll save you a whole lot of trouble.” Plagg reasoned, flying over and perching on one of Adrien’s computer monitors.

“But then it’s no fun. Besides, she really means a lot to me so even if I get rejected, at least I’ll have made her feel special. She really deserves it after all she’s done for me, and for everyone else too.” Adrien explained, a lovesick grin adorning his face as he imagined her reactions to all of the romantic things he was about to do.

“Ew.”

Adrien rolled his eyes at that and began to write down some ideas on a separate note of paper. Maybe he could make them all connect somehow? But what could he say?

He let out a sigh as he frustratedly ran a hand through his hair. He really needed a second opinion on this.

———————

The next day, Adrien walked into the classroom and nodded at Nino and Alya to signify that he’d left post-it number one. After a phone call to Nino, he settled on giving her one a day that would be placed on her locker in the morning. For once, they were thankful for Marinette’s late streak. 

“So, what does it say?” Alya questioned as Adrien sat down, leaning over her table to talk to him.

“You’ll find out soon,” was all the green-eyed boy responded with before turning back to the front and unpacking his bag. Alya pouted at that, but she knew he was right. At this point, it was just a matter of waiting until Marinette found the note and showed it to them.

Moments later, Marinette walked into the room holding the pink post-it note in her hand. Her lips were curled into a smile. 

Adrien listened in to her and Alya’s conversation, trying to find out if she had any suspicions of it being him.

“Girl, what does it say?!” Alya excitedly whisper-yelled, curious as to what Adrien has actually written. 

“It says, ‘dear Marinette, your smile lights up my world’.” 

“Is that it?”

“It’s also signed with the letter A.”

Adrien smirked at that. He wondered whether Marinette would realise that A meant Adrien or whether she would think it stood for anonymous.

Suddenly, the second bell rang, indicating that the lesson was about to begin. A few seconds later, Miss Bustier walked into the room and the girl’s conversation died down before Adrien could hear what Marinette thought about the note. 

Oh well. He’d find out later, anyway. 

———————

So it turns out that he didn’t find out later, a fact that spiked his nerves. 

When he finally got home that night after an extremely tiring photoshoot in the park—he may or may not have been distracted for a while due to spotting Marinette on her balcony, causing the shoot to be longer than necessary—he flopped down onto his bed. 

“Hey, Plagg,” he called out, lifting his head and glancing around to find the cat kwami. “Do you think I should tell her?”

The aforementioned kwami flew over to Adrien and landed on his head, a chunk of Camembert in his hands as per usual. 

“Tell who what?”

“Tell Ladybug that I've fallen for another girl.”

Plagg paused for a moment (partially to internally scream at the blond for being so blind) and let out a sigh. 

“Look, kid, it’s your choice to make. If you feel like it’ll take a weight off your shoulders, then do it.” Plagg responded, being unusually helpful and wise for once. 

Adrien pondered the thought for a moment. Telling his lady he’d fallen for Marinette—but not mentioning Marinette’s name, of course. That could be compromising to his identity—would make him feel better about trying to court said blue-eyed girl. 

“I’m gonna do it,” he finally decided, standing up from the bed and causing Plagg to fall off his perch on Adrien’s head. 

Adrien paced over to the oversized wall of windows on the other side of his room, staring out at the sun setting over the skyline. He smiled to himself, knowing that Marinette would probably be watching it too. She’d previously told him that watching the sun rise and set was one of her favourite sights after all. 

And maybe one day he’d be watching the sunset as he sat by her side, their hands intertwined. Maybe they’d even… 

Adrien slapped his hands to his cheeks, causing them to turn a tad red. He needed to stay focused and not get lost in thoughts of what he and Marinette would be like as a couple.

“Are we going or what?”

Adrien looked confusedly at his kwami. “Oh, you mean right now?”

“Yeah, I mean right now because you’re supposed to be on patrol anyway. When were you planning to tell her?” Plagg inquired with a pointed look, shaking his head as he floated beside Adrien.

“Well, I-er,” he stammered, a sheepish laugh bubbling from his throat. “I guess I was gonna wait for the right moment?”

Plagg let out an exasperated sigh at that. Knowing Adrien, the ‘right moment’ really meant ‘whenever I don’t chicken out of it’ which—again, knowing Adrien—would probably be never. 

“Kid, just say the words before I find some other way to get into that ring.”

———————

Minutes later, Chat Noir bounded along the rooftops, the evening breeze flowing through his hair. Being Chat Noir always brought him a wonderful feeling of freedom, one that he relished in as much as he could.

In that moment, he realised that spending time with Marinette often brought him the same feeling. The thought of her reminded him as to why he was out here transformed in the first place, bringing a slight blush to his cheeks.

When he reached the meeting point, he landed on the rooftop with a roll, standing up straight a second later. He glanced to his right to see his lady sat at the edge of the rooftop, staring out into the city.

“Hey,” he softly greeted her as he sat beside her, snapping her out of her trance.

“Hey,” she greeted back, sounding more distant than usual. Chat frowned at that. His news could wait until he found out what was wrong with his friend.

“Are you okay?” he tentatively asked, trying to catch her gaze.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just thinking about something that happened earlier today,” she responded, her cheeks flushing bright pink. “I think I might have a secret admirer.”

Chat raised an eyebrow at that as Ladybug deliberately avoided his gaze. “I found a note on my locker that says ‘your smile lights up my world’. The only clue they left for me was the letter A at the end of the note.”

Chat’s eyes widened at her words. There was no way; he couldn’t be that lucky, could he?

“D-do you have the note with you,” he asked, his heart rate becoming faster and faster by the second.

Ladybug nodded, sliding her yoyo open and retrieving a small post-it note from within. His eyes widened as he realised that it was the same shade of pink as the one he stuck to Marinette’s locker earlier that day.

She handed it to him, Chat’s breath wavering as he recognised his own neat handwriting written on the note. So that means that she’s… 

“Marinette,” he breathed, slapping a hand over his mouth when he realised he’d said it out loud. He heard a light gasp from his right and moved his gaze to meet hers.

“B-but how?” she stuttered. “How did you—”

“Because I’m the one who wrote the note.”

Her eyes widened as a thick silence hung in the air. Neither of them spoke, both trying to register what had happened.

“So you already knew?” Ladybug asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Chat shook his head in response, running a hand through his hair as he let out a chuckle. “I guess all that planning on ways to make you fall for me is now useless then.”

Ladybug’s eyebrows furrowed into a frown at that. “Plans?”

“Yeah. I realised that I was in love with you—Marinette you—a few days ago and I came up with this entire list of ways to get you to fall for me.” Chat explained, smiling softly at his spotted partner. She soon returned the smile, taking his hand in her own.

“Oh, by the way, that ‘A’ was actually supposed to help you realise that it’s me,” he told her, watching as a confused expression bloomed on her face. “Who do you know that has a name that begins with that letter?”

“Alya, but you’re definitely not her,” she giggled, her eyes widening in shock a moment later. “Wait, no way! Has there been a time where we played video games together recently?”

“Maybe; maybe not,” he shrugged.

“You’re a bigger dork than I originally thought, Adrien.”

His lips curled into a grin at the sound of his name escaping her lips. She’d managed to figure him out.

“Yes, but I can be _your_ dork if you want me to be.” Chat Noir replied, lightly squeezing the hand still intertwined with his own as hope shone in his eyes.

“As long as you keep sending me cheesy notes,” she joked, leaning her head on his shoulder as she watched the sun set in the distance.

“That was going to continue anyway, but sure,” Chat responded, leaning his head on top of hers. “Does this mean I can take you on a date tomorrow?”

“Of course it does,” she blushed, the heat emanating from her cheeks growing stronger. “And just so you know, your smile also lights up my world.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
